Can You Freeze Potatoes?

Have you ever wondered “can you freeze potatoes?”. If so, and you don’t know the answer to this question yet, I’m here to help.

Updated onAugust 21, 2017

Have you ever wondered “can you freeze potatoes?”. If so, and you don’t know the answer to this question yet, I’m here to help. There are quite a lot of things you might need to know about freezing potatoes and here I will provide you at the very least the most important ones. If you’re looking for a quick answer to the main question, it both yes and no. When it comes to freezing raw potatoes, that’s a bad idea, because they don’t freeze well, so that’s a “no”. When it comes to cooked potatoes, however, they freeze quite well, especially in certain forms and that’s why I said “yes”. If you would like to know more, read on.

Freezing cooked potatoes – mashed potatoes

If you’d like to freeze a lot of potatoes, mashing them and then freezing is probably the best idea. Many people freeze mashed potatoes with success, and I suggest you do the same. In fact, we have on Can You Freeze This an article on freezing mashed potatoes, check it out!.

Freezing cubed potatoes

First off, peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes (a typical 1” cube will suffice). Then cook those cubes in salted water just until they are tender (not as long as you typically cook potatoes). Once done, dry those cubes thoroughly. Now it’s time to take a cookie sheet and line it with aluminum foil (you can spray it with a non-stick cookie spray instead of using the foil) and put potato cubes on it, making sure they don’t touch one another. Then put the cookie sheet into the freezer until the cubes freeze solid. After that, you take out the pan, transfer the cubes into freezer bag (or bags if needed), label them properly and put into the freezer. You can reheat them in simmering water.

Freezing for french fried potatoes

If you’d like to make french fries from your potatoes in the future, this way is definitely most suitable for your needs. Like usual, you need to peel the potatoes and cut them into strips of your favorite size. Wash them in cold water and then dry. Now it’s time to ‘pre-fry’ those strips. Fry them in hot oil (but not as hot as it usually is when you’re frying potatoes) for a couple of minutes, so they’ll become tender but not brownish (ready to eat). Then you need to drain them (paper towels will be helpful) and let them cool. Once they’re cool, transfer them into freezer bags, squeeze all air out and seal those bags tightly. Label the bags and put them into the freezer, where they can be stored for a couple of months. When you’ll be ready to prepare french fries, you just need to transfer the frozen strips into deep oil and proceed as you always do.

Summary
As you can see, there are a few methods of freezing potatoes. I suggest you try out at least two of them and pick one that works best for your needs. Also, it’s quite possible that different methods will be suitable for different situations, so trying out all of them is a reasonable thing to do as well.